Planning for 2017 - Contribute your ideas!

[james]

Attending PSX, releasing the new Boundless trailer, and finally releasing a matching version of Boundless to Live on Steam contributed to a busy and focused end to 2016 for the dev team. In the past few months everything we worked on went into these events and activities. Hopefully this will set us up for a productive start to 2017.

We now need to work on planning the next period of development and I want to invite everyone in the community to contribute their ideas for Boundless.

Below are 4 questions that we encourage everyone to answer. Your ideas and priorities will help us have a good understanding of where the community thinks the game should go next.

Firstly features already implemented (or partially implemented) in Boundless.

1. Which current feature in Boundless do you think needs a MAJOR overhaul?

Is there a feature / system / area in Boundless already that you don’t like. What is this area? What don’t you like about it? How would you rework it / fix it / change it / replace it or simply trash it? What major system needs changing?

2. Which current feature in Boundless do you think needs a MINOR update?

Is there a feature / system / area is Boundless that you think needs a tweak? What’s the one little thing we could change that would greatly improve Boundless for you tomorrow?

Secondly feature missing from Boundless.

3. Assume that we can only add one more MAJOR feature to Boundless before hitting 1.0. What MAJOR new feature do you believe is essential before 1.0?

What single outstanding major feature do you think is essential for Boundless at 1.0?

4. Which new MINOR feature should we add to the next update of Boundless?

Is there a little feature that you would love to see added in the next update?

Copy the following text into your response and fill in the blanks:

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**1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature:**

**2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature:**

**3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0:**

**4. Add a MINOR feature in next update:**

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Any and all answers are valuable. Short or long answers. Have a think and let us know.

ps. No Weekly Dev Update this week. I hope everyone will allow the team 1 week off.

[sikerow]

Finer water physics like finite water mod in minecraft

[Thorbjorn42gbf]

Not a personal opinion but this at least is something @T4LCOMX cares about:

Rethinking the world regen

so, i just logged into boundless to find the Titanium Seam which was the main factor in choosing where I set my beacon machines and build my little base… Has not regenerated back to the titanium that was there. Now its rock. Im sorry, but remind me… what is the point of a world regen if the only thing it does is present players with negative experiences. You lose your construction that isnt beaconized and you can only farm an resource from a particular location Once. This makes no sense. Id r…

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Sadly I haven’t had the amount of time to play Boundless as I wished for so I can’t provide a lot of personal feedback

[alexanderyou]

I haven’t had time to play much recently, but I hope the crafting & skills systems will be much more refined from when I last played. Stuff like crafting skill levels, each tool/weapon having slightly different stats based on material + crafting skill + rng, and possibly having a rarity system for items.

Like high miner skill lets you get more “iron +4”, which when made into a weapon or tool has slightly better stats. This kind of thing would lead to much more specialization I think, which would only be good for the in game economy.

[Pois0n]

I haven’t figured out exactly what I want to change, but I totally agree with that. Tools should be able to garner additional stats which give them more value / worth.

[nevir]

1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature:

I’m struggling here; but maybe I’ll think of something later!

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2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature:

Resource distribution. Some resources are pretty hard/time consuming to find (gold, etc). IMO most (if not all_ resources should bias towards spawning near cave/surface walls/surfaces. Digging in random directions hoping to find some rare resource isn’t fun.

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3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0:

A core reward loop that keeps players engaged, even in the absence of new content. There’s a couple systems there to appeal to different sorts of players. I think the community aspect of the came will keep a fair number of players engaged, but I’m more worried about the folk who lean more towards the RPG side of the game.

There’s the loot → clear a titan → better loot → clear a more difficult titan → even better loot → etc loop. Though, I think for that to work, we need enough loot tiers to satisfy players for some time, or some randomly generated loot to keep things interesting (diablo- or borderlands style).

Unfortunately, I don’t have a concrete feature here, other than a vague worry about keeping people engaged after the first few months of the game releasing.

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4. Add a MINOR feature in next update:

The current worlds are pretty hostile to explore for newbies - particularly caves due to high drops, not many openings to the surface, difficult to find caves in some biomes, not enough connections, too wide for a torch to illuminate, etc.

I’d like to propose “cave tiers” to tie into world difficulty. Something along the lines of:

Beginner Worlds: All biomes should have “easy” caves: lightly sloped, not too wide, lots of interconnections, no large drops. A player should be able to find caves in any biome, and should be able to navigate them without much digging, or a grappling hook.

Intermediate Worlds: Some biomes have more unique & hard to traverse caves (canyons, swiss cheese, etc). Larger caves/caverns start to appear. A player should be able to find caves in any biome, but may require some digging/building/grappling to navigate some areas.

Advanced Worlds: Most biomes have difficult to traverse caves. Some biomes caves are hidden; require digging/etc to find them.

FWIW, this is something I’d love to do (yay for the world builder!), but I’m skeptical of my free time.

@james

ps. No Weekly Dev Update this week. I hope everyone will allow the team 1 week off.

[Karko]

1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature:
After thinking a while. The friend system is in need of rework. It is not obvious to new players how to friend someone one. Also I think it would be better if new players could start with their friends to enjoy he experience together not have to warp through the galaxy to find them on a quest.

2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature:
Ore/resource distribution in the current game sucks. You have be Sherlock to hunt down certain resources. If i’m having this much trouble finding what I need to progress god help the kids playing this game. I appreciate that MMO’s have a tradition of being more work than a multiplayer game, but I think something is wrong here that needs to be done differently. I know where certain resources should spawn and have not found them. The two that need re-balance most are gold and tech component. Hunting for them currently makes me not want to play this game, seriously.

3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0:

My first instinct as a player is to say temples(group content). That is what I want to see the most, and play the most. However, because you have shown players titans in Playstation trailer if they are not in game when you declare it as 1.0. I fear the backlash will hurt the games reputation and it’s chance for success. So I think it would be wiser to deliver on that, you can sneak temples in after the fact.

4. Add a MINOR feature in next update:
Guilds should be brought online to begin testing.

[Pois0n]

1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature: Thinking about this more

2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature: Claims. I think there should be two different types of beacons in the game. One type being the originally existing type and the another being a resource beacon. I have the best cave ever it’s freaking loaded, people would certainly pay me to rent it however I can’t claim an entire cave and “rent access” and even if I could then the resources would not respawn. I believe a resource beacon would be great, a beacon that did not stop world regen but stopped other players from mining the area. I think you should get fewer beacons of this type but that the area they claim should be much much larger therefore allowing players to “claim” a cave. I also think this should be strictly forbidden on starter worlds as that would be unfair to new players. Also adding something that allows me to manage a claim better than the plotter would be great.

3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0: More Content, I like building and that’s great but I can’t do it forever. I reached max tech tier in like 1 day of playing time, found a great cave that gives me more resources than I know what to do with, and grow increasingly bored. Suggestions I can include regarding content are

• PvP combat ( in certain places given the friendly nature of the game )
• A more in depth leveling system that may include stats that actually effect your character**
• The promised titan / temple stuff
• Gambling including but not limited to player built Casinos, individual bets, and server managed systems, betting on PvP fighting in an Arena of sorts
• Item customizations, ie the 4x reinforced ruby slingbow that cost 400 rubys and does 3x damage.

4. Add a MINOR feature in next update: Item stats. I don’t just mean cool things like enhancements. I would love to actually see the durability of my tools and know how they stack up against each other. Such as, is gold = 1500 hits / 500 rocks and iron = 1000 hits / 250 rocks?

[RaunHunter]

1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature: Not a feature in the game. But I would like better optimization on the sever side. I don’t have the best internet, but it isn’t dial-up. Currently. for the game to be playable, I have to change the draw distance to ‘very short’ and even then I face rubberbanding sometimes. Anything above and I keep getting the ‘slow network: 4000+ms’ notification. I know it’s not my internet because I play Overwatch on ultra settings with 60 fps and 20 ping, without any interruption.

2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature: I agree with the rest about changing the current resource distribution. It is not fun at all to dig deep into a mountain or into a cave only to find it has nothing but rocks and, at best, soft coal. Let’s be honest; digging isn’t fun. What is fun is digging up rare things. People forget breaking those 50 sedimentary rocks or clay soil if at the end of it they find something worth their while. If someone spends so much time digging, they should feel rewarded or it will just become frustrating.Of course, I’m not saying you should tremendously increase the presence of rare blocks and make it commonplace, but currently, it is extremely rare; unless you get very very lucky like @Pois0n did with his cave.

3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0: If I am to choose only one feature, I would say titans. But I hope 1.0 has much more than that; like a skill system, much longer tech tree, wider variety of blocks and recipes etc.

4. Add a MINOR feature in next update: I would really love to be able to warp between beacons. This would allow the currently small player base to group up and work on big projects while not having to walk across the world from their home to do it. The guild feature along with this would be really great.

[TheBirne]

1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature:

haven’t seen any totally broken mechanic/feature by now

2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature:

Times on production of items are to long for most stuff … waiting leads to frustration and frustration leads to leaving the game again … even if this are basic times and we can speed up them later when able to progress, just cut them down at least a half … more would be better (waiting for more then 1-3 minutes for a hammer is just stupid ^^)

3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0:

Farming … I really think farming should be implemented as a core non-violent gameplay feature … if that is to much take taming and breeding.

4. Add a MINOR feature in next update:

some more uses for interaction between people? sending messages over long distances with a tool, porting to a player or treat other players wounds? … or just give us a small regeneration. Having non is kinda frustrating ^^

[Miige]

2. i don’t like the swimming feature at all, its too clumsy. i think that need some rework: (it feels like sliding in ice)

[Okkelinor]

1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature: World Regeneration

I think what you must divide world core (rocks, soils, sands) and decoration instances (prefabs, trees, boulders and etc.). The world core regenerate like now block by block. But at the same time, instances must annihilate block by block if broken by player, and after full clearing here (not exactly in this place, maybe near) will appear another random instance of same decoration. Trees and prefabs will change by time.

2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature:

More interesting skill trees. That ones was described early are not satisfactory. I already told about this here.

3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0: Plant farming

I want to do a little farm of grass / flowers / trees where I want. More of consumable fruits and, maybe, a hunger mechanic.

4. Add a MINOR feature in next update:

With the hunger mechanic we need small health regeneration.

[Bokke]

My idea or suggestion (which has bothering me since quite a while) is about Boundless packaging.
Question: Will it be download only ? Or will it be sold in stores on disk also?

So my suggestion or what I wish in terms of production values:

• Please add booklet to a physical medium like blue ray.

• Collector’s edition should (must not, but it would be a crazy good feature) be a smaller cartonage box in a cube shape.
  For example a pink (or any colour) box in with a polished printing. The size: 15/15/15 cm. I’d really love that. Throw in all collector’s edition items. Doesn’t need to be fixed with some sort of box inlay. So one could rattle on the box a little before opening

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Edit: I’d be very happy for the initial Oort artwork to be placed on the box. Than just a mono colored box (which would also be very stylish, but I think having an artwork on a box would be great)

[Vastar]

1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature:

Definitely resource distribution.
The current model of resource distribution feels quite adequate for difficult high tiered worlds and their materials but might be a bit too daunting for new players on starting worlds.

2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature:

The Slingbow mechanic.
It just feels like a retexture of the bow in Minecraft, which isn’t bad but you could definitely do better and even a small change in this mechanic could go a long way…

3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0:

Decent PvP.
No matter how many different Titans, Temples and Worlds you add or how awesome each of these will be, I don’t think that a game like Boundless will be able to entertain me for long if it doesn’t feature decent and adequate PvP.
And comparing the success of open world - sandbox games with PvP and those without shows that I’m probably not the only one thinking that way.

4. Add a MINOR feature in next update:

Maybe stats for wearables? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Jokes aside,
I think that @alexanderyou made a good suggestion:
Promoting the ‘Skills’ from being a mere number to a game mechanic that actually affects the quality of the goods you produce sounds like a great addition to the gameplay, especially if you cap the amount of skills a player can master. (#trading)

[details=E.g.]Using the good ol’ MMO name-colour coding:
Mining < 25 – “Grey” Ores – 1.0 multiplier on the stats of tools/weapons they’re used for.
Mining < 50 – “Green” Ores – 1.1 multiplier on the stats of tools/weapons they’re used for.
etc.[/details]

[Valkirth]

1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature:
haven’t found anything i’ve been “oh snap thats broken and needs fixing” (good job on that)

2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature:
for the skill trees to feel more like your learning new skills/perfecting your chosen area of expertise and less of “you can now hit 25%,50% harder etc”,

3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0:
hmmmm farming would be my top choice with taming in 2nd,gives you something a bit more relaxing to do after a hard days work looking for gold

4. Add a MINOR feature in next update:
a whisper system for people on your friends list

[CoTuK]

First of all, before I start I would like to highlight that I am active FORUM user only at the moment. I entered the actual game only few times since I bought it, so I can accidentally misunderstand few points.

1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature:

1. I really dislike “buying in-game items for real money” system in most popular games where you can actually do this. The problem is that when this system of trading\ selling exist- there are enormous amount people on market who want to scam you. I really don’t want to see such thing in the Boundless… but there are not many solutions for this problem… the only 2 things that developers can do (in my opinion) is to make “pop-up window” with message and to make some moderators who will hunt for scammers and ban them… Maybe you guys have any better solutions?
   2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature:
   Don’t know any
   3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0:
   Creatures can drop items\crafting resources with randomized stats. For me 1.0 is when you can spend hours daily on the game and you will have plenty of fun there. Hunting\ adventuring for the loot is most fun thing for me, so I would like to do this after Boundless hit 1.0
   4. Add a MINOR feature in next update:
   Running boots, maybe?

I wish a great and successful year to whole Wonderstruck team!

[BrandonGoji]

@james

1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature:
This to me is truly of concern. As someone that wants to have a good experience during my entertainment hours. I want to feel submerged quickly when I start a new game and not have to worry about complex details until later on. The crafting for basic building needs to be relooked at. I’m sure you guys have a reason for the current development of it but the time involved to create a basic build is unbearable. My friends and I immediately noticed it. Its literally the first thing I noticed when I started playing again. It should not take me hours to build a small house to get started. No one should commit so many hours into making a basic house. The basic resources wood, stone, dirt, sand, need to be less time consuming to collect and allow for higher reward with the other resources. When I start the game as a new user I should be teased with a basic grapple and be taught how to climb a tree to harvest it. Enough wear on the grapple to where I can finish building a small house. Once it breaks I will then know how terrible it feels to not have one and I will desire to craft another along with other items. The block breaking should take 1 or 2 hits less than the current breaking point. Of course this would only be for basic resources that everyone is walking on.

2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature:
Crafting table Bermuda Triangle crash. lol.
The NPCs need to stop walking into things when in combat.

3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0:
Major rewards system. 1.0 sounds like a huge milestone and it needs to have huge updates to prove it. There is currently a leveling system but not much reward for achieving those levels. I am not sure what the reward should be but it should allow for longer gameplay. Looting? New weapons and armor? Interactive glowing low medium and high level house floor plans for people that suck at building? I don’t know! Thats for the creative dev minds to figure out

4. Add a MINOR feature in next update:

Its time to make us look like individuals. Maybe some basic aesthetics?

Papa bless <3

[L33onaardo]

1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature:
   Or improve, combat system !

2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature:
   ADD maybe tutorial of basics?

3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0:
   Major rewards system. like when you craft and build 1st house you earn badge or medal settlement.
   Or later with huge ahievment some unique armor,race,skin color ?

4. Add a MINOR feature in next update:
   Just try make this game playable

Thanks ! cheers !

[G-Sage]

My reply will be short and sweet.

1.I hate the beacon system in Boundless,I think the plots should be twice the size they are now and there should be a new GUI when you have a Beacon plotter in your hand.

2.Music,I’m super happy with the music in Boundless this far,but while it is soft and soothing,it’s not very exciting. I want there to be music far when I’m traveling long distances or when I meet someone new,and of course battle music. I believe that if you guys can pull off a complex music system for Boundless,it’ll make the game that much more amazing!

3.For this one,I’d have to say ether armor or character model customization. The reason I say armor should be self explanatory(for fighting and looking fabulous) but there’s not much fighting in Boundless yet so it might not be needed.
The other option,character model customization,is probably the one I think is definitely needed in Boundless right now. I get that there are a lot of races to come,and that’s fine,but if we don’t have at least one other race in the 1.0 update,we should at least let the players be able to change key features of the race we have now.

4.This last one is very small and I’m pretty sure is completely probable,a sword or Meele weapon would be great. While I like the sling bow and all,a meele weapon like a sword or LANCE would be great for the beginning of the game. Plus it’d look so dope in an elemental colors.